Last month, a business owner questioned me why his articles weren't creating any inquiries. After reviewing his content approach, I found he was making the same mistakes I see numerous Saudi businesses commit.
During my latest project for a banking company in Riyadh, we found that users were consistently clicking the wrong navigation options. Our eye-tracking revealed that their attention naturally moved from right to left, but the primary navigation components were located with a left-to-right hierarchy.
Recently, a eatery manager in Riyadh lamented that his establishment wasn't appearing in Google searches despite being well-reviewed by customers. This is a common challenge I see with local businesses throughout the Kingdom.
For a healthcare center in Jeddah, we boosted their local visibility by ninety-four percent by verifying their business information was thoroughly matching in both Arabic and English throughout all listings.
A few weeks ago, my friend's e-commerce store was barely surviving in search results regardless of selling excellent products. After executing the strategies I'm about to describe, his unpaid visitors increased by over one hundred fifty percent in just 60 days.
Recently, a clothing brand approached me after spending over 150,000 SAR on social media advertising with limited results. After redesigning their approach, we generated a six hundred thirty-one percent improvement in ROAS.
- Developed a figure visualization approach that handled both Arabic and English numerals
- Redesigned charts to progress from right to left
- Implemented color-coding that corresponded to Saudi cultural connections
Through extensive testing for a store chain, we discovered that emails sent between night time dramatically outperformed those sent during traditional working periods, producing substantially higher readership.
- Reorganized the form flow to match right-to-left cognitive patterns
- Built a dual-language data entry process with smart language toggling
- Optimized touch interfaces for ThreeSixty Digital solutions thumb-based Arabic text entry
As someone who has developed over 30 Arabic websites in the recent years, I can confirm that applying Western UX principles to Arabic interfaces simply doesn't work. The special features of Arabic language and Saudi user preferences require a specialized approach.
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Moved product images to the left portion, with product details and call-to-action buttons on the right
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Changed the product gallery to move from right to left
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Incorporated a custom Arabic typeface that kept readability at various dimensions
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Explicitly specify which language should be used in each input field
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Automatically switch keyboard layout based on field type
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Place input descriptions to the right-hand side of their associated inputs
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Verify that error notifications appear in the same language as the expected input
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Choose fonts purposely developed for Arabic screen reading (like Dubai) rather than classic print fonts
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Expand line height by 150-175% for improved readability
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Use right-oriented text (never middle-aligned for primary copy)
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Prevent condensed Arabic typefaces that compromise the distinctive letter shapes
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Position the most important content in the top-right section of the page
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Arrange content blocks to progress from right to left and top to bottom
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Use heavier visual weight on the right side of symmetrical designs
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Verify that directional icons (such as arrows) orient in the right direction for RTL designs
Recently, I was advising a large e-commerce business that had invested over 200,000 SAR on a stunning website that was converting poorly. The problem? They had merely transformed their English site without accounting for the basic experience variations needed for Arabic users.
- Repositioning call-to-action buttons to the right-hand portion of forms and screens
- Rethinking information hierarchy to progress from right to left
- Adjusting clickable components to align with the right-to-left scanning pattern